Pleasure Pier parking draws complaints from residents

The new Pleasure Pier, Landry's $60 million water front entertainment district located at the site of the old Flagship Hotel on Seawall Boulevard, Friday, May 25, 2012, in Galveston. Several of the rides are not open to the public yet. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle )

The debut weekend of the Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier drew huge crowds to the Galveston Seawall, but came at a cost – parking headaches, according to some residents.

“It was kind of crazy around here,” said Greg West, who runs a tree service at 2624 Ave. Q-1/2, a couple of blocks from the amusement park at 25th and Seawall Boulevard. “It was like Mardi Gras and the Fourth of July put together. People just parked everywhere.”

Visitor parking for the new $60 million venue was not a problem, however, according to Mark Kane, regional director of Landry’s theme park division. He elaborated in an email:

Over the past weekend, it appeared that there was plenty of parking available. Pleasure Pier’s premium lot, located next to Fish Tails restaurant, reached capacity only once on Sunday afternoon for a total of 30 minutes. Other than this occasion, there was always parking available in the premium lot. We are unable to speak on behalf of the parking availability on the Seawall.

Landry’s also opened a parking lot on 35th Street that accommodated over 1,000 cars, Kane said, adding that the venue did not run out of parking capacity during the holiday weekend.

Many visitors opted to park on public streets than to pay to park at the Fish Tails restaurant lot, which cost $10 per hour, and $2 for each additional hour for a maximum of $16 a day.

The amusement park opened Friday to kick off the Memorial Day weekend, attracting hoards of thrill-seekers and their families. Within hours of its debut, traffic had spilled onto nearby streets, creating a parking nightmare for residents like Philip Perez.

“We were barbecuing at the house because we have a deck out front, and there were cars everywhere,” said Perez, whose rental property is located in the 2500 block of Avenue Q-1/2.

“It’s a double-edged sword in that you have the business owners that welcome all the additional tourists and tourist dollars,” he said, “but for the locals who live here, it’s an inconvenience because you can’t get around the city as freely.”

Meanwhile, Lt. Michael Gray of the Galveston Police Department said that residents who live in the vicinity of the Pleasure Pier will be given parking permits to restrict parking in front of their homes.

“We have received concerns about the potential for illegal parking, and the city has put up signs” to notify visitors about the restricted residential parking areas, he said.